Here's a game harvested from the Smuggler Profession Forum. "Snake Eyes"! I like it. Credit goes to "Surseance" of the Infinity Galaxy, playing under Lacq Laithlind.
There are many dice games that can be played with other players, but Snake Eyes is by far the most exciting one I have tried. The reason for this is that the money in the winner pot can increase incredibly much in a short time - and you'll never really know who wins - or when - before someone actually reaches 100. The game is very easy to learn. As a rule, the higher the initial bet is, the faster the pot grows. The more players in the game, the faster the pot grows as well.
Real Life Snake Eyes follows basically the same rules as the ones we use within the Space Pirates, but our Pirate Snake Eyes rules are modified to make it easier to calculate the winner pot.
***SNAKE EYES DICE GAME RULES***
Number of players: Two or more
Number of dice: Two six-sided dice (choose roll two dice on a six-sided dice)
Ante: None - payment as the game proceeds, as below
Object of the game: To be the first to accumulate 100 points, subject to certain handicaps
-TERMINOLOGY-
Ace: Rolling a 1 is called rolling an ace.
Snake Eyes: Rolling TWO 1's is called rolling Snake Eyes
-METHOD OF PLAY-
A scorekeeper is needed, who will keep tabs for each player.
The players agree on an initial bet; for instance 1000 credits. Each player puts 1000 credits in the pot.
Play proceeds in turn around the table, with the clock; i.e. from left to right. (To determine who goes first, every player rolls ONE die. The player with the highest score starts.)
The two dice are rolled as many times as the player chooses, and he announces aloud the amount of each roll and the cumulative total.
BUT...
...if he rolls one ace, that ENDS his turn and he gets NO SCORE.
...if he rolls SNAKE EYES he not only gets no score, but ALL his accumulated previous score is WIPED OUT and he starts at ZERO again.
Consequently, the player has to choose between trying to run a big score and the increasing probability that an ace will show and ruin it.
When a player announces that he is stopping his turn, having rolled no aces, the scorekeeper credits him with his score for the turn, and announces aloud his accumulated total. This helps the other players to decide whether to play cautiously or rashly, depending on the relative scores of the moment.
Every time a player rolls an ace or Snake Eyes, ALL players add 1/10th of the initial pot to the pot before the next starts his turn. This may sound small, but it builds up fast.
The first player to reach a total score of 100 takes the pot.
***A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE***
The players A, B, and C has decided to play Snake Eyes. First, eveyone has made sure they each have a six-sided die in their inventory, and then they form a group. Now the dice rolls will show up in everybody's Combat screen.
The three players agree to place an initial bet of 1000 credits to the pot. The pot is now 3000. In practice this means that every time the game stops, every player must pay 300 each to the pot; increasing the pot with 900 for each stop.
For practical reasons, all you have to do is let the game flow but count how many times the game stopped and calculate the winner pot afterwards.
The three players roll one die each to decide who starts. In this case, we'll say A won, followed by B and then C.
Player A starts and rolls a 4 and a 5. That's 9. He decides to roll again and rolls a 6 and a 6. That's 12 and his total is now 21. He decides to roll again and gets a 1 and a 3. This time he gets no score, the game stops and it is now B's turn.
B rolls a 2 and a 4. That's 6. He rolls again and gets a 5 and a 3. That's 8 and his total score is now 12. He rolls again and gets a 5 and a 6. That's 11 and his total score is now 23. He rolls again and gets a 5 and a 5. That's 10 and his total score is now 33. B decides to stop rolling now. The game STOPS and now it is C's turn.
C rolls a 4 and a 3. That's 7. He rolls again and gets a 6 and a 2. That's 8, making a total score of 15. He decides to roll again and get a 1 and a 2. Since C now rolled an ace, he gets no score and the game stops, leaving C with 15 points.
A's total from last time was 21. Now he rolls again and gets a 5 and a 6, making a total of 32. He rolls again and roll a 5 and a 5 making a total of 42. He rolls again and gets a 5 and a 4 making a total of 51. He rolls again and rolls a 1 and a 1! The player has rolled Snake Eyes and his score is now 0, the game stops and it is now player B's turn!
The game now goes on in this fashion until player B is the first to reach 100. The game stopped 27 times before a winner could be declared. We remember that the initial bet was 1000 credits from every player, making an initial pot of 3000. Every time the game stopped, each player was to pay 300 to the pot. THusly, every time the game stopped, the pot increased with 900 credits.
900 credits x 27 stops = 24.300 credits.
We then add the initial pot of 3000 credits to this sum, making a winner pot of 27.300 credits.
Each player must therefore pay 1000 plus 300 x 27 = 9100 credits to the winner.
Just remember, the more players and the higher the initial bet is; the higher the pot will be. And it *really*grows fast, just so you are warned!
***SAFETY AND TRUST***
These rules function well within our own guild since we have laws concerning the settling of gambling debts. But if you are going to play this game outside of a guild with people you don't know or don't trust, the only way would be to play it with a neutral scorekeeper who not only keeps the tabs but also acts as the bank.
The way a neutral player can act as the bank is like this:
Every time the game stops, every participating player must /bank tip the scorekeeper 1/10th of the initial starting pot. THe game does not proceed until everyone has paid. If someone cannot pay, they are out of the game, and the money they've already paid to the pot REMAINS in the pot.
Once the game is over, the scorekeeper will /bank tip the winner the appropriate amount.
For practical purposes the scorekeeper should be paid for his services. This the scorekeeper can do himself when paying the winner by charging 10% of the winner sum as his payment. If the winner pot was 100k, the scorekeeper's payment would therefore be 10k, and the winner would receive 90k instead of 100k.
Why 10%? 10% is actually very little considering that it costs 5% of the sum to actually /bank tip the winner. In reality it is therefore only 5% the scorekeeper gets.
Lt. Col. Lacq Laithlind
Baron and Pirate Presbyter
Professional Gambler, Smuggler and Gunslinger
Feedback anyone?
Oh, and we're doing Scum & Villainy on Saturday this week? Yes or No?
